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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. | The University of Alabama in Huntsville men's basketball team will open up play in the NCAA tournament on Saturday, as the sixth-seeded Chargers will take on No. 3 seed Lynn at 11 a.m. CT in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball South Regional.
 
The contest will be held at Rick Case Arena on the campus of top seed and host Nova Southeastern.
 
The Chargers earned an at-large berth into the national postseason after going 24-7 on the year including a run to the title game of the Gulf South Conference tournament, while Lynn is 23-6 overall and reached the semifinals of the Sunshine State Conference tournament.
 
UAH is one of four GSC schools to be playing in the regional, and this marks the eighth berth in 10 years for the Chargers. Only SSC member Florida Southern has equaled that number of appearances during that same time span.
 
The Chargers enter the game ranked 14th in Division II with a field goal percentage of 49.9 percent, while the team is 13th in the nation by hitting 3-pointers at a 40.5 percent clip, and the team is led individually by sophomores Sam Orf, JJ Kaplan, and Seth Swalve who all scoring in double figures for UAH.
 
Orf and Kaplan earned all-GSC status, and Kaplan additionally earned a place on the all-tournament team last weekend in Birmingham.
 
Ranking tied for seventh in the GSC in scoring is Orf with 14.6 points per game, while Kaplan is second in the conference in both rebounding with 8.5 boards per game and field goal percentage as he enters this weekend as a 53.6 percent shooter. Swalve is tied for 11th in the league with 3.5 assists per game and also with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.5
 
The Fighting Knights are scoring 77.0 points per game while shooting 43.8 percent as a team, and the squad has four players that are averaging double figures in scoring with Michael Baez pacing the team with 18.1 points per contest.
 
Much of Lynn's success derives from its ability to win close games, going 12-4 in games decided by five or fewer points.
 
By contrast, UAH has played in just six games that have had that same final margin, going 3-3 in those games.
 
The two teams have a limited history with each other, as Lynn has won all three of the prior meetings.
 
The last game pitting the two against each other came in the NCAA tournament in 2015 when the Fighting Knights were 80-62 winners.
 
The winner of Saturday's game will advance to the semifinals on Sunday in which it would play the winner of second-seeded Florida Southern and No. 7 seed Delta State.